Implementation Grant to Create a Family Drug Court Component of the Existing Leech Lake-Cass County Wellness Court

The purpose of the Family Drug Courts Program is to build the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribal governments to either implement new drug courts or enhance pre-existing drug courts for substance-abusing adults involved with the family dependency court as a result of child abuse and neglect issues. Applicants must provide services to the children of the parents in the program as well as to the parents. The program provides seed money, not long-term support. OJJDP expects successful applicants to develop and implement a sustainability plan during the grant period to continue operation of the family drug court when the grant ends. The program is authorized under 42 U.S.C. 3797u et seq.

The Leech Lake Band seeks a Category I Implementation grant to create a Family Drug Court component of the existing Leech Lake-Cass County Wellness Court, the first joint tribal-state court in the nation. The program will serve 10 tribal members and non-Indian substance-abusing adults residing, on the Leech Lake Reservation and/or Cass County, Minnesota, involved with family dependency cases pending in tribal and state courts. Grant funds will supplement current Wellness Court activities and hire a Family Drug Court Coordinator and Advocate. The goals of this program are to improve outcomes for alcohol and other drug addicted individuals in the courts through justice system collaboration; to ensure children found to be in need of protection or services have safe, stable, permanent families; to improve parental and family recovery from alcohol and other drugs problems; to ensure child well-being; to ensure participant compliance with court-ordered case plans and system accountability; and to reduce costs to society. Progress will be measured by the number of families served; percent of families served by evidence-based programs/practices intervention models; percent of participants successfully completing; and percent of participants who reoffend through drug/alcohol offenses and child protection offenses, and initiate a new system-level initiative. CA/NCF